The Clinton Foundation received big money donations from foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was still in office as U.S. Secretary of State.
This revelation gives the appearance, whether founded or unfounded, of influence peddling by countries who were lobbying the federal government on various issues.
Previous reporting indicated that Bill and Hillary Clinton’s charitable foundation put such contributions on hold while she was serving as America’s top diplomat, but that the spigot is now wide open , and the big bucks are again flowing in. The overseas donations to the Clinton Foundation has prompted criticism across the ideological spectrum about the potential conflict of interest given that Hillary Clinton is expected to announce a run for the presidency.
According to the Washington Post , it turns out that the ban on overseas contributions to the global foundation was not absolute from 2009 to 2013 and subject to certain exceptions.
“The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration, foundation officials disclosed… The agreement, reached before Clinton’s nomination amid concerns that countries could use foundation donations to gain favor with a Clinton-led State Department, allowed governments that had previously donated money to continue making contributions at similar levels… In some cases, the foundation said, governments that continued to donate while Clinton was at the State Department did so at lower levels than before her appointment.”
The donation in question was a $500,000 check from the Algerian government, purportedly for Haiti earthquake relief.
Several of the countries making Clinton Foundation donations including Algeria have questionable human rights records, particularly in the context of women’s rights, and/or have “complicated diplomatic, military and financial relationships with the U.S. government.”
In addition to controversial donations from overseas governments before, during, and after Hillary Clinton was an official in the Obama administration, the Clinton Foundation also apparently raked in about $81 million from seven individual donors via a Swiss bank allegedly used by one-percenters as a tax dodge.
Separately, Hillary Clinton reportedly paid the female staffers in her U.S. Senate office 28 percent less than men while she represented the state of New York on Capitol Hill from 2002 to 2008.
If she seeks the White House in 2016, Hillary Clinton apparently intends to use income inequality and women’s rights as cornerstones of her campaign, which makes these issues problematic.
Hillary Clinton — who stepped down as Secretary of State in 2013 — and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have also amassed a personal fortune in the range of $100 million to $200 million, mainly from corporate speechmaking. During her recent ill-fated book tour, Hillary Clinton nonetheless claimed that the couple was “dead broke” when they left the White House and that currently they aren’t “truly well off.”
Various TV pundits on the left and the right (see clips below compiled by the Washington Free Beacon ) have weighed on the Clinton Foundation’s foreign donors and the appearance of impropriety.
[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEnzjulGZ_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPu_fz67mf0